In 2015, he was considered Personality of the Year in the Arts and was the cover of Forbes magazine in January 2016,[3] in Portugal.

In 2017, Leonel Vieira was president of the Association of Film and Audiovisual Producers in Portugal.

Since 2020 he has been part of the Scientific and Technical Commission of the Audiovisual and Multimedia course at the Escola Superior de Comunicação Social.

In 2019, Leonel Vieira was invited to the Shanghai International Film Festival as a jury for cinema and the Magnolia television awards.

In the same year, Leonel Vieira co-produced the well-known Chinese animation series "The Panda and the Rooster".